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whoUy in rhime ; and as the Latins, after Greece had fubmitted to 

 their power, poliflied and enriched their uncouth dialeft, by a clofe 

 imitation of the fraooth and fonorous Greek, fo the Turks as wifely- 

 enriched theirs by borrowing as much of the manner and grace of the 

 Perfian, as their language would allow. The late Mr. Paradife, who 

 was a Byzantine gentleman, and an excellent fcholar, I have often heard 

 fpeak in the higheft raptures of the Turkifli poetry, fome of which he 

 would repeat, obferving that the whole of their poetry was in rhime. 

 Mr. Nott too, the learned tranflator of Hafiz, has mentioned to me a 

 Turkifli poet, whofe name I forget, that bore a ftrong refemblance to 

 Juvenal, in the vehemence and indignation of his verfe ; perhaps it was 

 Ruby Bagdati ; the fame of whom Sir William Jones fpeaks in his elTay. 

 Yet, rhime, it appears, has neither impaired the vigor, nor crampt the 

 force of the Turldfli Juvenal, who, like the nervous Pope, or perhaps 

 the more ftubborn Donne, barbs the fury of his fatire with the rhime, as 

 the Indian manticora brandiflies his fpiked tail, and flrikes his adverfary 

 with repercuffive vengeance. 



Let us turn our eyes to Tartary, and then behold what an immenfc 

 portion of the world rhimes its poetry ; Grand Tartary alone compre- 

 hending nearly one third of all Afia ! We admire, and naturally afk from 

 what fource thefe populous and extended nations derived this ftrong 

 feature in their verfe ? And here we muft call all thofe Tartars, or 

 Scytha, who bent their courfe northward, for by that appellation they 

 were anciently diftinguiflied, whether as Afiatics or Europeans. Of 

 thefe latter Scytha; Strabo thus fpeaks, n...p r. .^^^ Bcp>V,^V' &c. 

 " ficut nots verfus feptentrionem gentes uno prius nomine omnes vel 

 " Scythe, vel Nomades, ut ab Homero appellabantur, ac poftea tem- 

 " poris cognitis regionibus occiduis Celtae, Iberi, aut mixto nomine, Cel- 

 " tiberi, as Celto-Scyth^ dici coeperunt, cum prius ob ignorantiam fm^ 

 " gulffi gentes uno omnes nomine afEcerentur." CLiO. i.) Of the 

 Afiatic ScythtE the fame accurate author fpeaks. Lib. 2., and gives 

 the geography of them both at large; but it is remarkable, that' 



